When I left from work today, CNN was playing a program discussing lead paint of toys made in China. I stood on the staircase and listened to the program for a few minutes, the program concluded with a survery question. I don't remember the exact wording, but here is what I recall:

 

"20 years after american toy companies shifted production to China, do you feel outrageous that China promised not to use lead paint on toys only recently"

 

OK, here is my answer: I do feel outrageous that american toy makers have not been doing any quality check w.r.t lead paint for 20 years. And, CNN, I feel a lot of shame on you for misleading the audience into China bashing.

 

Don't get me wrong, I do think it's a big shame that some toy makers in China used lead paint. But hold on for a moment, China is a developing capitalism. What do you expect if the big american toy companies don't have quality check in place and continuously apply downward price pressure to the manufacturer? As a sound human being one shouldn't do this kind of things by moral standard, but shouldn't you expect some bad apples from any country and plan for it? It's also important to remember that those lead paint toy were not only for export, as one would felt from this CNN question, those toys were sold to Chinese consumers as well. It's unfortunate that China, as a developing country, have not built a sound quality check process in place yet. But shouldn't you expect that from a developing country and take your own responsibility in making sure the product you are selling to consumers, under your own brand, are safe?

 

Again, China is still a developing country, a developing capitalism, that has a lot of things need to improve on. What did the developing capitalism USA ( and all other western countries for that matter ) do hundreds years ago? Should one feel outrageous that houndreds years after declaring all human beings are equal, american were still using slaves? I don't even need to mention that a lot of western countires' early capitalism development was attributed to robbing and colonizing the rest of the world. I have to say compared to those track record, China's development is much cleaner.

 

Shame on you, American media.